There were light fingers this week; there was at least one snowy white iPhone 4 in the Great White North; there were apps galore; emails from Steve; more incredible impossible hard-to-credit stuff from Piper Jaffray, which seems to specialize in pixie dust and random guessing; and there was Google and Verizon, trying to make us hate them more than we hate AT&T. Oh yeah, there was also Mac|Life, where all of this makes sense.


Features:

- The Google / Verizon Net Neutrality Pact - 10 Years in the Future - We're big fans of an open Internet and the freeflow of information and entertainment. There are parties, media conglorporations mostly, who aren't quite so thrilled and who would like to see limitations on the other guy's traffic and a zippier download time for their content. We peered into our crystal ball to see what the Intertubez might -- just might -- look like circa 2020 if Google and Verizon get their way.

- 10 Useful Resources for Every iOS Developer - While it's getting easier and easier for developers to put together iOS apps, it's still a wild world of unfamiliar, complex coding that might be holding back the next great iteration of mobile awesome sauce. Luckily, there are sources out there that can make getting your name in lights in the App Store a relative breeze, and you know our picks are winners -- we make apps ourselves after all.


How-Tos:

- How To Take Control of Flash - Don't get us wrong. In some ways we love Flash and all the great games people have made, but most of the time, that handy-dandy plug-in enrages us with its CPU suckage and the way it destroys our beloved computer performance. If you're like us, you want to manage Flash and make it work for you, instead of make you want to punch your fist through the monitor. Here's how to get your hands on Flash and whip it, but good.

- How To Turn Off Facebook Places - There might be more complicated How-Tos you may need our help with, but this one could be a lifesaver if you're on Facebook (and really, who isn't?). The new Places feature has just been rolled out with all that Foursquare style action, but with Facebook's sharing, it turns out your friends can "check you in" at places, even if you're not there. Don't want your girlfriend seeing your friends check you in at a strip club? Yeah, let's put a stop to that one.


Reviews:

- Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 Review - So it seems only fair after we've griped about Adobe Flash up above that we give credit where credit is due. No one touches Adobe when it comes to digital image editing, not even our beloved Apple. There, we said it. Hate on, Aperture fanatics, but while Photoshop Lightroom 3 isn't as clean as Apple's software for organizing and managing pictures, it still holds all the aces when it comes to edits, tweaks, and fixes.

- Western Digital WD TV Live Plus Review -  The worst part about a whole range of digital media players is conversion. Oh, you want to watch your movies instead of spend hours making multiple copies in multiple formats? Well, have we got the device for you.  Western Digital's WD TV Live Plus not only handles the gamut of AV file formats, it will also navigate DVD controls from your disc images and Netflix streaming. The only thing it won't do is pop your popcorn. That's coming in an upgrade.


News:

We call this section "News," but, come on, is it really news that a great number of people want a Verizon iPhone? We don't think so. Are you listening, Apple?... What do people not want? To have to carry around two devices, one just for gaming; sorry, Sony, but you're gonna have to step up your game...speaking of games, there's always a new crop coming up through the App Store, so maybe you can take a break from texting your grandma to get a little fun on....or if you feel like reading sometime instead of gaming, why not check out the new Nook app for the PSP? Oh, right. Okay, how about the new Nook app for the iPhone....see, what people do like is convenience, sort of how a manufacturer put together this combination Bluetooth headset/iPhone 4 case for the best of both worlds...speaking of convenience, it's nice to have Vimeo getting on the ball with HTML5 video encoding for we iPhone users. FAILBlog here we come...and since streaming video on the go is the absolute epitome of convenience, we break down the Hulu v. Netflix debate. Who gets your moolah? Stay tuned after this commercial break for the exciting answers...of course, all these questions of iPhone and mobile convenience are moot if you can't even get your hands on the thing in the store; luckily, the hitch in the supply chain appears to be loosening up and iPhones will be there before you know it...like this white handset finally at someone's house, up in the Great White North of Canada; kinda fitting, we think....lastly for iPhone's perhaps the biggest, best news we've heard in some time, straight from the Jobsman himself: an iOS 4 update that makes the 3G not run like molasses. Huzzah!

With all the talk of streaming video content, we'd be remiss if we didn't pass along this notion of Verizon's of letting you stream your FIOS subscription to your iPad. Wanna watch TV in bed, but you've only got the one set? You better believe there's an app for that...of course, you've already been watching your VEVO music video app for a while, that's a definite...file this one under updates, Gmail on the iPad has suddenly become amazing; it's a shame those crazy kids can't get along better with Cupertino...in other rivalry news, it looks like the Kindle and the iPad rule the roost when it comes to e-reader markets; will this turn into a Highlander thing where only one can survive? God, we hope so...because everyone loves the iPad, even lightfingered none-too-bright criminals who think they can lift the device right out of a smashed store window...and since everyone loves the Apple products, we can expect tons more tablets out there like this LG one, all of them aping a few iPad features just a little bit (or more)...sure, they were one of the original smartphones out there, so we kind of expect Blackberry to step up their game in the mobile market; if the rumor mill is even half right, their BlackPad shows genius planning right out of the gate with the name alone...the rumor mill never stops and this time they've got their eyes set on the iPad mini, or some smaller version of everyone's favorite new tablet computer...